How detailed should we be when confessing sins of sexual nature?

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How do we confess sins of sexual nature to our priests while being considerate of their conscience?

E.x: If someone has committed a homosexual act/has had impure thoughts of homosexual acts, does that detail need to be in there? Or is, ‘I’ve indulged in impure thoughts/committed impure acts with another’ suffice?

I’ve read that sometimes certain circumstances can mitigate a sin, but how do we balance out being honest and considerate of our priest’s conscience?

Another ex: Say someone has had impure thoughts about a consecrated person, does the fact that this person is consecrated need to be said in confession? Or is this considered a different sin in itself, ie sacrilege? Would you say ‘I’ve had impure thoughts about consecrated person/s’, or ‘i’ve committed the act of sacrilege’?
 
I’m not sure about the impure thoughts part of the question. As for sexual sin acts I always thought we were to specify the nature of each type, but I’ve read here multiple times that that’s not necessary. We don’t have to be specific, just a general sexual sin confession and only specific as to the number of sexual sins not specific as to the nature of the sexual sins.
 
Yes - you need to state the kind of sin, and number of times for each.

Homosexual thoughts/acts are different to heterosexual thoughts/acts. In the latter example saying ‘Impure or lustful thoughts.’ And wrt the acts, then one has to state what these acts were - fornication (unmarried), adultery, sodomy, oral sex.

If they were homsexual in nature, then say “Homosexual lustful thoughts” And wrt the acts - again state what they were - sodomy, homosexual oral sex. Or I would think for the acts, you could say homosexual unnatural acts.
 
Deliberately entertaining sexual thoughts about a consecrated person should be confessed as well I would think. It changes the nature of the sin…
 
No need for details, specially in regard to sexual sins for obvious reasons.

Otherwise the confession becomes just another opportunity to do additional sins.

God Bless
 
Kind and number. If Father needs any details, he will ask.

Be brief, be bold, be gone.

“I sinned against chastity one time since my last confession”.
 
TheLittleLady said:
“I sinned against chastity one time since my last confession”.
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Just saying they’ve sinned against chastity isn’t sufficient. Homosexual sins are a different kind to heterosexual sins against chastity.

Sodomy is specifically listed as one of the sins that cry to heaven.
 
This. You can say ‘sins of the flesh’ too and if the priest needs clarification he will ask.
 
You can amend it by situation, like “I committed sins of the flesh with [ex. myself, before marriage, with a member of the same sex, etc.] since my last confession” but the basic verbal formula suffices.
 
frumacat said:
This. You can say ‘sins of the flesh’ too
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No. That is too broad a category and could mean anything.

And assuming the priest will know what you are confessing and if not will ask, may not be the case here. He may very well assume the individual is confessing heterosexual sins instead of homosexual sins. It is up to the penitent to honestly accuse themselves of the evil they’ve committed, to not intentionally disguise the gravity of the sin, and as we are to include any factors that increase or mitigate the gravity.

Confessing viewing homosexual porn Father explains by example why one should confess homosexual porn compared to just viewing porn.

Unnecessary details are to be avoided. Stating whether it was homosexual or heterosexual are necessary details.
 
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Please stop describing your sins in detail! Moral Theology
I’m a priest. I hear confessions. And I can tell you, you don’t even need to go into detail in confession!! It’s better if you don’t. If you just say “I committed X sin Y times,” that suffices. And if I’m not clear on what you mean, I’ll ask! But detail has a danger, that we start explaining things to try to justify them. It’s better for our humility to just admit what we did and accept God’s forgiveness and get out! Be brief, be bold, be gone! -Fr ACEGC
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See my response above. I’m just offering the ‘sins of the flesh’ verbiage as a formula, it can be altered to include to specify type.
 
This is correct.

Number and kind. No unnecessary details, but you still have to say enough that I’ll get it.

“I sinned against chastity” is not specific enough. The correct way to confess such a sin is simply to answer the question of “In what way did you sin against chastity?” I don’t need you to recount in detail what happened. Just “I did (this unchaste act), (x number of times), (alone or with another).”

-Fr ACEGC
 
pinetree28 said:
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Number and kind with the circumstances (if need be). St. Thomas Aquinas broke the species down similar to the following:

delectation (thoughts) or external action of:
  • unnatural vice: uncleanness, beastiality, sodomy, unnatural manner of copulation, or
  • natural vice: fornication, seduction, incest, adultery,
with or without rape or sacrilege.
 
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Father said in that post

“I committed X sin Y times,”

I think that’s applicable here.
 
I’ve never met a priest who says “I wish people gave more details in their confessions”. Really, a priest will ask if he feels he needs to hear details.
 
This priest tells what he prefers to hear.

That does not make this a doctrine. Kind and number. Kind can be “against the 1st commandment I have sinned X times” etc.

988 §1. “A member of the Christian faithful is obliged to confess in kind and number all grave sins committed after baptism and not yet remitted directly through the keys of the Church nor acknowledged in individual confession , of which the person has knowledge after diligent examination of conscience.
 
Just plain vanilla, unless the priest asks for some sort of detail.
 
The burden of confessing the sin is upon the penitent. The confessor is not obliged to second guess what sin is intended, nor do most of them have the ability to read minds. A question asked might be along the lines of “Did you fully consent?”. or if confessing a theft might be How much if the penitent didn’t state an amount . But most of the time a confessor assumes the penitent is confessing fully. A priest usually only asks if it isn’t clear what sin is being confessed.

That’s why the guilt of invalid confessions are on the person confessing their sins and not the confessor.

So in the case of sexual sins it is necessary to state they are homosexual in nature.
 
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